Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Privateer]

Here are some of the things students do when reading an English storybook out loud:

1. Blithely ignore articles in the text and simply not read them.
2. Insert articles where there are none in the text.
3. Ignore plurals and possessive 's'.
4. Change a past tense verb to the simple present tense version, even when the two forms sound nothing like each other as in 'buy' and 'bought'.
5. Stress the last word in every sentence, often on its last syllable. If listening to students read irritates you, this is probably the biggest reason why.
6. Read without pausing at the end of sentences.
7. Use rising intonation whenever there's a question mark, as if every question were a yes/no question.
8. Fail to stress words that are italicised or capitalized for emphasis.
9. Destroy the natural rhythm of English sentences by giving equal weight to every syllable.
10. Pause too long at the end of quoted speech as if it were the whole sentence and then pronounce the 'said so-and-so' part as if it were the start of a new, unrelated sentence.

There's probably many more things people can add to the list.

So, some of these, like 2,3,6,7,8, and 9 are partly due to pronunciation difficulties. Many English final syllables don't occur in Korean so they automatically add an 'uh' on the end making it sound like they're inserting an 'a' sometimes. And they have no idea about English sentence stress. And adding an 's' or 'z' sound to the end of a word seems hard work for them.

Number 1 looks like pure carelessness, however. And number 4 tells me - what? - they're focusing on meaning and not on reading? Number 2 is I suspect partly due to being drilled to produce a pattern so they'll put 'the' after, for instance, 'go to' even when there isn't one. Is it really so hard to just read what's on the page?

Is it slackness? Is it just pronunciation issues?

Are they, as I suspect, systematically taught to read English wrong at school? Perhaps public school teachers can shed some light on this one.

If anyone has some insights on the reasons for these bad reading skills I'd like to hear them. And does anyone have any good tips on teaching them to overcome these problems? I've tried correcting students as they go, advising them to listen to tapes and repeat after them line by line, and explaining rules of pronunciation, but it doesn't seem very effective at all.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Maybe it's just the age of your students. I teach adults. The first week I have them they sound kind of choppy while reading, but that quickly goes away. I think mine are just not used to reading aloud. Our school has a required text that we are required to follow to the letter. As a result, a good share of our 4 hours a day lesson is spent reading the activities aloud so the students get a lot of oral practice--I only have 10 students. After a few weeks, they sound terrific.

Reading is a skill, like the other parts of learning a language, and lots of repetition is necessary for them to improve. My students have had years more practice than yours. Keep at it so when your students get to me they can read comfortably.

[ddeubel]

TTS is the way to go about providing a rich and efficient learning activity/experience for students. Individually or in groups. See much on EFL Classroom 2.0, whether that be our stories page, practice page, karaoke or also our Youtube channel

http://ca.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=ddeubel

But I would also caution about expecting good reading skills early on in the learning cycle. Speaking/listening should be watered first though don't neglect the input and learning reading through input - text/script recognition. But don't expect great oral reading.

Further, I do think too too too many teachers are fixated on oral reading in TEFL. It gives the appearance of learning, may I also say "teaching" BUT is it really a general skill student's need proficiency in? Most reading is quiet and also in the form of skimming and scanning. Practice these. Reading outloud isn't too useful in life unless you want to be on the radio/tv.

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Draz]

My students skip articles too. Even if we are doing "listen and repeat" they have a tendency to drop the articles!

[rhinocharge64]

That's because they aint no articles in hangul!!!

[Privateer]

[Dome Vans]

Reading aloud is not a natural reading skill. Quiet reading is the skill that needs to be developed. Children who are generally good at reading quietly in their own language will, on the whole, be good at reading in a foreign language. This is mainly because their brains are trained towards not translating every single word. Good readers can finish a book in one sitting because they read and fill in the blanks when it comes to the whole meaning. That's the skill.

Reading aloud is a artificially low pace for the reader because they are repeating all the words in the text, which they would be doing if they were reading quietly.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[it's full of stars]

Reading aloud is more tiring than reading inwardly, so I would guess that habitual readers gravitate towards reading into themselves.

[ddeubel]

[moosehead]

Privateer -

kudos for you to have your students reading out loud!!

this is a very fundamental way for anyone to practice their skills for a number of reasons - and yes, dropping articles, leaving off consonants, changing verbs, all those things you will see are pretty general mistakes made by students.

one of the most common I see are ignoring the "s" in plural words - such as boys, toys, dogs, etc. - the student will just pronounce it in singular form. when I see a student do it repeatedly - I let them finish then go to the board and give the entire class a lesson on how to notice the plurals.

I'm a mother and having raised a child, am familiar with how important it is to have children read aloud. American educators strongly urge parents to encourage reading aloud by children for many reasons. Some of them are:

- it helps with pronunciation
- it builds confidence in the child's ability to read
- it demonstrates to the child the teacher (or parent) is conscious of their learning and is involved with their learning which, in turn
- reinforces their self-esteem
- dramatizes for the teacher (or parent) where difficulties lie or misunderstandings are so they can be explained and/or corrected

students in my classes become so accustomed to reading they usually wave their hands over who gets to read first - and many want to read again and again. It's something they can show their parents at home also - who might not even understand but are impressed little Yoon Ha can read in English.

comprehension will come later, don't worry about that. Work on the simple things first - getting them interested in reading. Encourage them that reading is fun and they can all do it. That's the first step.

It can be difficult - especially when they are used to not having to do anything but sit there - some of my students are shocked they actually are expected to learn!! ha ha - but they DO learn and they DO learn to like it.

my littlest ones - first and second graders - also practice illustrating the story - we do a story a week - then we illustrate it and read it again - making the picture helps them with comprehension - and in my mind, eases the stress for them a bit since they enjoy it more.

*also* my style is to read aloud first and try and make sure everyone is listening, then I let the students read. This is so they can hear the way it's supposed to sound first, especially large words.

most of my students have had phonics, but interestingly they rarely try and sound out a word - instead they just stop and wait until I notice and then I say the word for them and they repeat it - it's ok, seems to be a general K way of learning.

cheers!

[rhinocharge64]

Hmmm to thlast poster, no it doesn't. Students go through the motions and feel embarrased and the rest of the class don't listen. Source: Cambridge univeristy, sorry to piss on your cornflakes, but true!!!!!!!!

[Privateer]

[Privateer]

[Privateer]